Tankborn

On rugged planet Loka, life for best friends Kayla and Mishalla is arduous at best. They are GENs, genetically engineered non-humans, and in their strict caste system, GENs are at the bottom rung of society. GENs are gestated in a tank and sent to work as slaves as soon as they reach age fifteen. When Kayla is assigned to care for Zul Manel, the patriarch of a trueborn family, she finds secrets and surprises—not least of which is her budding friendship with Zul's handsome great-grandson.

Once a lowly Chadi sector GEN girl terrified of her first job assignment, Kayla is now a valued member of the Kinship, a secret organization of GENs, lowborns, and trueborns who fight to further the cause of GEN freedom. But she is still a slave to the trueborn ruling class, and her relationship with trueborn Devak is still strictly forbidden. Kayla longs to be truly free, but other priorities get in the way. A deadly new virus is sweeping through GEN sectors—a disease only GENs catch.

Kayla is a GEN—a genetically engineered nonhuman—in a world torn apart by castes separating GENs from "real" humans. In the wake of a devastating bomb blast, Kayla finds herself at the headquarters of the organization that planted the bomb—and many others like it in GEN food warehouses and homes. Her biological mother tells her that Devak is dead and that Kayla must join their terrorist group, which is ramping up for something big. Now Kayla must pretend to embrace this new role in an underground compound full of paranoia as she plots a way to escape and save her friends.